Junior Shalaine Phaup won her third consecutive cross country meet this past Saturday, and this time she took advantage of her own course. Phaup, from Henderson, Ky., ran a personal best time of 19:08, and beat Evansville's Crystal Stock by 20 seconds.

Evansville won the six-team meet with 46 points, while Arkansas State was second with 54 points. UTM was third with 78 points.

I feel the home meet was very successful," said Jason McKinney, the Skyhawks head coach.

"We doubled the amount of teams that competed this year from last year."

McKinney said his women's team used the home meet to turn in one of their best performances of the season.

"The women ran better as a team than they have all year. I am happy with the progress and we should continue to improve over the next three weeks."

With her third consecutive win, Phaup is showing poise.

"She should compete well at the OVC," McKinney said.

"She put the work in over the past two years and she is seeing the success. I am also seeing her improve in the mental part of her races."

McKinney also noted that Gracian has turned in her fastest two times ever in the past two weeks. "It feels good to have our top two runners finishing up front at almost every meet."

Angelina Gracian finished third overall in the meet. She turned in a time of 19:38. Rounding out the top five for UTM was Megan Vonderheide, Mary-Tatum Ray and Kim VanWinkle.

On the men's side, UTM finished in sixth place out of eight teams. The University of Evansville finished first with 27 points, while Arkansas State was second with 73 points. Tennessee Tech was third with 79 points.

"The men ran well this weekend, but we have had a lot better races through out the year," McKinney said.

"Robby Clapper was out because of an injury and Zac Hedrick dropped out due to exhaustion from being sick all week."

McKinney said his men's team has a lot more potential than what ran Saturday.

"Individuals have to step up when someone is having a bad day. We will be starting our taper for OVC and that should make a change on the performances."

Darrell Lewis was UTM's top finisher in 15th place. He turned in a time of 29:10. Jeremy Coltharp finished in 20th place with a time of 29:44 and rounding out the top 25 was Philip Rhodes turning in a time of 30:04.

"Darrell Lewis ran a good race," McKinney said. "This was the first time he has ever been the number one runner and I think he did well."

McKinney said hosting the Skyhawk Invitational required a lot of time and hard work.

"I would like to send a special thanks to Chuck Jones of UpChuck Timing who did a great job of timing this meet."

The Skyhawks return to action Saturday when they compete in the University of Evansville (Ind.) Invitational.